COURSE of the MONTH

Exchange 2007 Cluster Mailbox Server fails during install and will not uninstall cleanly, how to force removal of a server from a 2007 org?

We built a new upgraded Exchange 2007 org, with 2 CAS/HT servers, and a 2007 SCC 2-node mailbox cluster, with one legacy 2003 mailbox server for safety. All of which works perfectly.

Now we are ramping up production and trying to put in a second 2007 SCC 2-node mailbox but having sever problems. Both servers OS match our previous SCC cluster and show no problems there, cluster install is also functioning fine. When we tried to install the first active node in Exchange using the name of the old 2003 cluster the install failed (we think because remnants in AD didn't like reusing the name but we aren't sure).

So now we have a "corrupted" mailbox server sitting in the org that refuses to be uninstalled. We have tried gui...but that launches into "maintenence mode" that refuses to allow you to do anything. We have tried EMS using ./setup.com /Mode:Uninstall and ./setup.com /Mode:Uninstall /RemoveCMS /CMSName:"Exchange1" both fail.

You don't happen to have any mailboxes on that corrupted server do you? you must remove all mailboxes and public folders stored on the server. (Assuming you've already done that)

Have you tried to delete the exchange registry keys from HKLM\System\Current Control Set\Services. Set any remaining services in services console to manual. Then reboot and run from the command line exsetup /mode:uninstall.

There were no mailboxes on that server, it was corrupted during the install process. We haven't done any reg edits yet, because we felt that would be futile. We need to remove the server from the Exchange ORG not the individual machine.

The actual machine has already been repurposed and reinstalled succesfully as a mailbox server "mailbox3". What's left is the AD crud...